Travis Heights is Austin's original hillside neighborhood — platted in 1913, walkable to South Congress, priced from $700K bungalows to $3M+ downtown-view trophies. I've walked buyers up these hills enough times to know exactly which streets need a second cup of coffee.
I'm Johnny Ronca — Compass RE Texas LLC luxury real estate · 20+ years Austin · 300+ closed transactions · $250M+ career sales · 5.0★ on Zillow (33 reviews) · TX RE License #581766
Key Takeaways
I'm Johnny Ronca — a Compass Austin luxury agent with 20+ years, 300+ transactions, and $250M+ in career sales. I've lived in Austin for 26 years, including 12+ years across the river in Barton Hills/78704, close enough to Travis Heights that I've walked these hills more times than I can count — usually to a showing, sometimes just for the coffee on South Congress.
I work Travis Heights constantly — it's one of maybe six 78704 neighborhoods I watch every week, because the good lots and the well-kept bungalows get bought before they ever make it to the MLS photographer's calendar. If you want first look at what's coming before it's a public listing, let's talk.
Johnny Ronca · (512) 797-0965 · [email protected]
(Anonymized examples — reach out for what's actually available this week.)
Pocket Listings — Not on Zillow
I typically have at least one pocket listing in or around Travis Heights that isn't on Zillow, Realtor.com, or the public MLS.
That includes original-condition bungalows on the historic-district streets and near-finished remodels not yet photographed. Recent range: roughly $850K–$2.2M. Call me before you search anywhere else — these move fast and won't wait for an open house.
Metric | Travis Heights |
|---|---|
Median price | ~$727K (trailing, Redfin) |
Entry price | ~$700K (smaller original bungalows) |
Mid-range | ~$950K–$1.5M |
Premium ceiling | $2M–$3M+ (view lots, new construction) |
Price/sqft | ~$400–$650 (varies sharply by vintage vs. new build; trailing average ~$424) |
Days on market | ~31–43 days (Redfin) |
School district | Austin ISD |
Zip | 78704 |
Character | Historic, hilly, walkable, tree-canopied |
You'll see other sites quote a Travis Heights average north of $1.6M. That number is real in the sense that a handful of trophy sales pull it there — it is not what a buyer shopping the $700K–$900K entry tier should expect to pay. Trust the range, not a single headline average.
Metro context: ~$440K median, ~4.7 months inventory, ~67 days DOM. Compare honestly.
I've been selling Austin luxury real estate for 20 years, and Travis Heights is one of those addresses where, when someone tells me they live there, I immediately know three things about them: they wanted to walk somewhere, they didn't mind paying a premium for a hundred-year-old floor plan, and they weren't chasing the biggest lot in the ZIP code.
Travis Heights was platted in 1913 by General William Harwood Stacy and developer Charles Newning — one of Austin's first large planned residential subdivisions built up the hills on the south side of the river, directly across from downtown. Stacy sold lots with promotional streetcar tours from the Capitol and reportedly gave away a Ford or two to move inventory, under the slogan "Out of the Noise-Zone and Into the Ozone." Different era, same instinct — sell the view.
By the time Stacy died in 1928, roughly 600 lots had sold and more than 160 homes were standing. His three sons kept developing the neighborhood through the following decades.
Today the neighborhood — formally the Travis Heights–Fairview Park Historic District — runs from Lady Bird Lake on the north down to Oltorf Street on the south, bounded by Congress Avenue on the west and I-35 on the east. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in July 2021.
What holds it together physically is topography: real hills, curving streets laid out to follow them instead of a flat grid, and a tree canopy old enough to shade a two-story house by 10am. The original deed restrictions barred multifamily and commercial building — which is a large part of why the single-family character has survived a century of Austin growth largely intact.
1. History you can't build new. The 1913 platting, the century-old deed restrictions, the National Register listing — none of it is available at any price in a neighborhood built in 2015.
2. Downtown views without downtown parking. Some of these hills give you real skyline sightlines, a walk to Lady Bird Lake, and a five-minute drive to Congress Avenue — for a fraction of what a downtown condo with a fraction of the square footage runs.
3. A wide enough spread that most budgets fit somewhere. Not every buyer wants, or can afford, the $2M view lot. Travis Heights still has $700K entry points a few blocks off the main corridor — something the neighboring parts of 78704 mostly don't anymore.
Price Band | What You Get |
|---|---|
$700K – $950K | Original or lightly updated 1920s–1960s bungalows, 1,200–1,800 sqft, on the district's quieter interior streets. Expect an original kitchen. |
$950K – $1.5M | Renovated bungalows and mid-century homes, 1,800–2,500 sqft, often on Newning, Kenwood, or nearby historic-district streets |
$1.5M – $2.2M | Full renovations or smaller new construction, better lots, some with partial skyline views |
$2.2M+ | New-construction modern builds and larger remodels on the premium view streets — Alta Vista, Travis Heights Blvd — with real downtown sightlines |
Key price drivers in Travis Heights:
Travis Heights sits inside Austin Independent School District. The neighborhood's namesake elementary school sits inside its own boundaries.
School | Level | Notable |
|---|---|---|
Travis Heights Elementary | PK-5 | Neighborhood-namesake campus, walkable from most of the historic district |
Sarah Lively Middle School | 6-8 | Renamed from Fulmore Middle School in 2018 — most buyers still know it as Fulmore |
Travis Early College High School | 9-12 | Formerly Travis High School; offers an early-college pathway with Austin Community College |
Austin ISD attendance boundaries are drawn address by address and can be granular even within one small neighborhood — a home two blocks apart can, in some cases, sit in a different zone. Private-school families here typically commute to campuses elsewhere in Austin rather than staying hyperlocal; there's no marquee private K-12 campus inside Travis Heights itself. (Confirm assigned campuses for any specific home.)
Official school pages:Travis Heights Elementary · Lively Middle School · Travis Early College High School
I'm Johnny Ronca — Compass RE Texas LLC luxury real estate · 20+ years Austin · 300+ closed transactions · $250M+ career sales · 5.0★ on Zillow (33 reviews) · TX RE License #581766
The buyer profile here is more varied than in a single-income-bracket suburb, but a few types show up constantly:
The SoCo walker — Bought specifically to leave the car parked on weekends. Coffee, dinner, and a show at the Continental Club, all inside a fifteen-minute walk.
The renovator with patience — Bought a 1920s bungalow at the entry price knowing the kitchen and possibly the foundation needed work, betting the location was worth a two-year project.
The downtown-adjacent downsizer — Sold a bigger house further out, wants the skyline view and the walkability, doesn't need the square footage anymore.
The common thread is that almost nobody moves to Travis Heights for the schools alone — they move here for the location, the history, and the walk, and they make peace with Austin ISD instead of Eanes.
Destination | Off-Peak | Rush Hour |
|---|---|---|
Downtown Austin (6th & Congress) | 5–10 min | 12–20 min |
South Congress (SoCo) | 5–10 min walk or 3 min drive | — |
Lady Bird Lake / Butler Trail | 5–10 min walk | — |
UT Austin main campus | 10–15 min | 18–25 min |
Austin-Bergstrom Airport | 15–20 min | 20–30 min |
The Domain | 20–25 min | 30–40 min |
There's no comparable historic neighborhood this close to downtown Austin on foot. That proximity is the single biggest reason resale demand here has stayed resilient even in slower cycles.
Walkable from Travis Heights:
A few minutes away:
Nearby dining, culture & parks:Big Stacy Park · Little Stacy Park · Blunn Creek Greenbelt · The Continental Club · Lady Bird Lake & Butler Trail · Vic Mathias Shores
Factor | Travis Heights | Bouldin Creek | Zilker |
|---|---|---|---|
School district | Austin ISD | Austin ISD | Austin ISD |
Trailing median price | ~$727K | ~$981K | ~$1.1M |
Price/sqft | ~$424 | ~$517 | ~$608 |
Character | Historic hillside bungalow district, National Register | Funkier, younger-feeling bungalow-cottage mix | Park-adjacent, premium new construction mixed with older homes |
Signature green space | Blunn Creek Greenbelt, Lady Bird Lake nearby | South First corridor, no marquee park | Zilker Park and Barton Springs, on foot |
My honest take: if you want the oldest, most historically protected housing stock in 78704, and you're fine trading direct Zilker Park access for South Congress and Lady Bird Lake instead, Travis Heights is the play. Bouldin Creek is the funkier, slightly younger-feeling cousin with a lower entry price and less deed-restricted history. Zilker costs more because it's the one neighborhood where you can walk to Barton Springs itself, not just look at the trailhead from a distance. I'm happy to tour all three in one afternoon — bring comfortable shoes, the hills are real.
"Johnny not only helped me buy a great home in Lakeway at a great price back in January of 2021 but he then helped me sell that same house for over $200K of what we…" — Ryan Baudoin, verified Zillow review
Twelve-plus years in Barton Hills, just across the river and then across MoPac, meant I was in and around Travis Heights constantly — usually walking a listing, occasionally just for the coffee on South Congress. And these are real hills. These streets were platted for horse-drawn wagons in 1913, not for a 50-something real estate agent hauling a lockbox up Alta Vista in August. My knees file a complaint every summer. My buyers rarely do — the view from the top is the whole reason they're here.
What I like about selling here specifically is that the story sells itself. I don't have to convince anyone that a 1920s bungalow with a hundred years of history is worth a premium — either you get it walking in the door, or you'd rather have new construction, and there's plenty of that here now too. Both buyers are right. I just need to know which one I'm working with before we start touring.
Twenty years of watching Austin's market cycle up and down has taught me which neighborhoods hold value because of something real — fixed lot count, protected historic status, a location nobody can replicate. Travis Heights checks every one of those boxes. It's not the flashiest listing photo in 78704. It's usually the smartest long-term hold.
Travis Heights is one of Austin's oldest planned neighborhoods, platted in 1913 on the hills just south of Lady Bird Lake and downtown. It's part of the Travis Heights–Fairview Park Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
Austin ISD. Homes typically feed Travis Heights Elementary, Sarah Lively Middle School (formerly Fulmore Middle School), and Travis Early College High School (formerly Travis High School), though exact zoning should be confirmed address by address.
Trailing market data puts the median sale price around $727,000, with entry-level bungalows starting near $700K and new-construction or view-lot homes running $2M to $3M-plus. Some sites quote an average closer to $1.6M — that's pulled up by a handful of trophy sales, not what most buyers pay to get in.
Part of the City of Austin, inside ZIP code 78704 and City Council District 9. It's a historic neighborhood, not an incorporated municipality.
5 to 10 minutes off-peak, 12 to 20 minutes at rush hour. It's one of the closest historic neighborhoods to downtown in the entire city.
Yes. Most of the neighborhood sits within a 10 to 15 minute walk of South Congress Avenue's shops, restaurants, and the Continental Club. Lady Bird Lake and the Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail are similarly close.
It's a fixed, century-old street grid with no room to add inventory, and deed restrictions dating back to the original 1913 plat kept out multifamily and commercial building. Turnover is naturally slow — homeowners who bought for the walkability and the hills tend to stay.
The neighborhood's National Register status, its walkability to South Congress and downtown, and its scarcity of buildable lots have supported steady long-term demand. Like any market, short-term price movement varies year to year — trailing data show median price down slightly year-over-year, which is normal after several strong years, not a red flag on its own.
Austin ISD schools rank a notch below Eanes ISD for buyers who prioritize that above everything else, the hills mean stairs and steep driveways that aren't for everyone, older homes often need foundation or systems work, and the price gap between an entry-level bungalow and a renovated or new-construction home on the same street is wide enough that budget mismatches happen constantly.
Zilker Real Estate · Barton Hills Real Estate · Bouldin Creek Real Estate · South Austin Real Estate · Rollingwood Real Estate · West Lake Hills Real Estate · Downtown Austin Real Estate
I'm Johnny Ronca — Compass RE Texas LLC luxury real estate · 20+ years Austin · 300+ closed transactions · $250M+ career sales · 5.0★ on Zillow (33 reviews) · TX RE License #581766
Whether you're chasing a $700K entry-level bungalow before the hills price it higher, or you're ready to build new on a view lot near Alta Vista, I can get you in front of what's actually available — on and off market. Johnny Ronca · (512) 797-0965 · [email protected] — or book a quick call: calendar.app.google/Mmtr3L3D16VRD7fQ9
Johnny Ronca
Compass Austin · 20+ Years · 300+ Transactions · $250M+ Sales
📞 (512) 797-0965 | ✉️ [email protected] | 📅 Book a call
6,383 people live in Travis Heights, where the median age is 38 and the average individual income is $97,474. Data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau.
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There's plenty to do around Travis Heights, including shopping, dining, nightlife, parks, and more. Data provided by Walk Score and Yelp.
Explore popular things to do in the area, including Pura Austin, and Tie's Barbershop.
| Name | Category | Distance | Reviews |
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Yelp
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nightlife | 0.69 miles | 0 reviews | 0/5 stars | |
| Beauty | 0.68 miles | 23 reviews | 3.8/5 stars | |
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Travis Heights has 3,526 households, with an average household size of 2. Data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. Here’s what the people living in Travis Heights do for work — and how long it takes them to get there. Data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. 6,383 people call Travis Heights home. The population density is 5,932 and the largest age group is Data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau.
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